About
This laboratory was initially founded as 'Laboratory for Advanced Ceramics' by Late Prof. VSR Murthy in late nineties. With the change in research interests from 'ceramics for structural applications' to 'development of materials for biomedical applications', the name of the lab is changed to 'Laboratory for Biomaterials' since 2005. With the spirited contribution from Prof. Bikramjit Basu over last one decade, state-of-the-art research facilities to facilitate research on advanced materials processing to biocompatibility evaluation are established. The researchers from various academic institutions as well as R&D labs use our facilities. This lab took a pivotal role in leading major international multi-institutional projects in the area of Biomaterials, funded by Indo-US Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF) and UK-India Education Research Initiative (UKIERI). The research carried out in this lab is widely recognised by various prestigious awards, like Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award, Fellow of National Academy of Sciences, Young Scientist awards by Indian National Science Academy/Indian National Academy of Engineering/Indian Science Congress Association, Fellowship from Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences. Under the present leadership of Dr. Kantesh Balani, the researchers also focus on functional materials, like solid oxide fuel cells and surface coatings, while simultaneously pursuing the biomaterials research.
- Hydroxyapatite and Bioglass based biocomposites for bone replacement.
- Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) based biocomposites for acetabular cup liner in hip joints
- Processing utilizes electrostatic spraying, plasma spraying, and spark plasma sintering
- Carbon Nanotube (CNT) reinforced biocomposites (both ceramics and Polymeric)
- Molecular Dynamics to observe protein interaction with biomaterials.
- Hydrogen Storage
- Development of Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) and Ceria (CeO2) based anode and electrolytes for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
- Development of ZrB2 HfB2 and TaC based 'Ultra High Temperature Ceramics' using spark plasma sintering
- Joining of Ultra High Temperature Ceramics
- High Temperature Thermal Conductivity and Tribology of Materials
- Nanoindentation and Nanomechanics
- Wear and Tribology of Materials (Fretting, Micro-scratching, Nanoscratching, and Pin-on-Disk)
- Dynamic modulus (i.e. storage and loss modulus) and damping response of material to a dynamic load
- Understanding the tribology at nano-scale using nanoindentation and nano-scratching. Fundamental wear mechanisms, coefficient of friction, and scratch depth can be extracted from these nanotribological testing.
- Fractal modeling is utilized for estimating the fracture toughness of CNT reinforced ceramic composites.
- Ab-initio molecular modeling using SIESTA (Spanish Initiative for electronic simulation of thousands of atoms) allows extracting minimum energy configurations and electronic density of an interface.
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